I woke up this morning feeling weary. That’s a bad sign because it could have meant that’s as good as I was going to feel all day. I’ve said before in these posts that yoga teachers are not at all immune to exhaustion. So, my current condition has given me cause for reflection.
There are so many words for being bone-tired that you might wear yourself out just reading this partial list:

• frazzled
• pooped
• bushed
• sapped
• drained
• spent
• prostrate
• enervated

A phrase for extreme fatigue that seems to be popping up more and more is ‘adrenal exhaustion’. This is a condition that can occur when the adrenal glands are continuously activated through being under unrelenting stress with no time out for recovery. Your body then becomes depleted, burnt out and susceptible to various illnesses.
I’ve come through a particularly irksome cold, which is mostly gone. Except for a lingering… what? Rhinitis? Dr. Google provides a wealth of self-diagnosis possibilities, if I want to go there.
I’ve decided to go to my yoga tool box instead where I keep a huge collection of restorative yoga poses.
These are the ones I’ve chosen to soothe my adrenals, kidneys and whatever systems need some loving attention:

1. Supported Sukhasana (Simple Cross Legs Pose)

2. Viparita Karani (Legs up the Wall, on a bolster)

3. Supported Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bound Bridge Pose, on a bolster with blocks)

4. Savasana (Corpse Pose) with controlled breathing, normal inhalation and long, slow exhalation

If you’d like more information on yoga and adrenal exhaustion read Roger Cole in the American Yoga Journal.